Ramkumar 11 Dec 2021 4:52 PM

The peaceful spiritual township of Auroville in Puducherry witnessed angry clashes between its residents and workers from nearby villages after earth movers were engaged by the administration of the township and the Town Development Council (TDC) to chop trees to make way for an inner ring road. The proposed road plan called Crown project runs through the Dharkali forest region where the Bliss and Youth centre is located. The Auroville residents allege that the decision to fell trees for the project was taken by the Auroville foundation and the TDC without consulting the community.

On Friday, the National Green Tribunal stayed the felling of trees at Auroville after a plea was filed before the regulatory body by Navroz Kersasp Mody, an environmental activist seeking a direction to the TDC to stop the chopping of trees in Auroville. It should be noted that the decision to implement the project was taken at a meeting chaired by the Governor of Tamil Nadu RN Ravi who was appointed as the new Chairman of the reconstituted Governing Board of Auroville Foundation a couple of months ago. Puducherry Deputy Governor Tamizhai Saundarajan and eight others were also appointed as members of the executive committee. The first executive committee meeting attended by new members was held on November 2nd. Following this, the felling of trees for the construction of a road in the Auroville area under the ‘Crown’ project started on the 4th of this month.

The Aurovillians began their protests earlier this month when the Auroville Foundation tried to implement the project undermining a ‘long-standing collective decision-making process of the community.’ The residents argued that cutting down a large number of trees in the Auroville area would be detrimental to the environment. As per Crown project, the 4-km inner ring road would connect all four zones of the model city. However, a section of residents are demanding that the plan be slightly altered keeping ecological concerns in mind.

Speaking with News9, Vasugi, a resident of Auroville said, “The foundation and Town Development Council took the decision on their own without following the community process. Usually, decisions will be made as a community and it’s mandatory to get approval from the Resident Assembly. This process wasn’t followed.” Mobile footage recorded by the residents shows a clash where a section of the residents were allegedly roughed up by locals. The residents allege they were attacked when they tried to stop an earth mover brought to clear the Youth Centre.

“What is going on in Auroville right now is a travesty. The Auroville Foundation is imposing a 20-year-old master plan which hasn’t been updated. Using JCBs against the youth of Auroville, without even showing work orders is absolutely atrocious. We are not against development, but we want development that is ecological and inclusive. Auroville is meant to be a place of human unity. This violent top-down implementation of a rigid plan, ignoring all alternatives suggested for the route, has absolutely nothing to do with human unity,” said Suhasini Lucas, another resident.

“We do not intend to block any kind of development work in Auroville, but only requesting that an alternative way be chosen as many trees may be cut down for the Crown Way project. Trees have already been cut down with the support of police, that is nothing but barbaric. Auroville Foundation cordoned off the entry points to the Youth Centre and police manhandled and detained youth staying there at midnight on last Sunday.” Hemanth, another resident of Auroville, told News9. He also added that the entry of Aurovillians who tried to reach the project site was blocked by police since Sunday. Citing the ecological concerns surrounding the Crown Project, Kundavi, a resident, said, “There is a low-lying area at the head of a watershed. We need to have a plantation and we need to work on how to protect the watershed. You should know that for each tree that will be removed, four trees will be planted.” Auroville is located mostly in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district with some parts in Puducherry. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa – known as “The Mother” to her followers and designed by architect Roger Anger. The vision behind Auroville is that it will become a universal town where people of all countries are able to live in peace and unity by rising above creeds, politics and nationalities. While it was originally planned for about 50,000 residents, its population has hovered around 3,000 over the past few decades. Auroville Foundation did not respond to our calls when we reached out for comments.

The township near Puducherry that was envisaged as ‘belonging to nobody in particular and belonging to humanity as a whole’ is at the half-century mark. For five decades its residents have given up personal wealth and immersed themselves in service to the community. It is as good a time as any to evaluate the successful and not-so-successful results of this experiment in ‘spiritual communism’

The issue at hand is that trees have been planted on land earmarked for the Crown, including the Crown Right of Way

A road project, part of a plan to make a universal city, has left Auroville divided. Residents now pin their hopes on the NGT.

What Aurovillians are asking for is a town planning process that upholds and reflects the ideals of ‘the city the earth needs.’

The residents of Auroville township in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district will now heave a sigh of relief.

Protests over development project puts Auroville management in spot. Meanwhile, Villupuram MP D Ravikumar on Monday wrote to Chief Minister MK Stalin urging him to intervene and safeguard peace in Auroville.

We are deeply disturbed by reports from the experimental township of Auroville (a living UNESCO world heritage site), that unique forests, water catchment areas, community spaces are being bulldozed, and most importantly of all, community processes being ignored and bypassed. All this is being done in the name of “development” and a narrative that those who have been speaking for the forests, waterways and community processes have been standing in its way. The website www.standforaurovilleunity.com documents the unfolding of events in Auroville, and the responses from within the community and outside.

As videos and photographs show, about two weeks back, bulldozers flanked by police started clearing a forest bypassing due consensus-building processes within the community, which is among the founding principles of Auroville. This included a night-time raid at Auroville’s Youth Centre by nearly 80 policemen, involving police aggression, followed days later by forceful demolition of the centre’s main structures by involving nearly 100 hired strangers and violence at the hands of some. Residents who have raised the alarms have been threatened with gagging orders, deportation, FIRs, and denied the freedom of speech and the freedom to protest.

This kind of aggression imposed in an international intentional community, known for its innovations, is unacceptable and risks undoing much of what Auroville has offered and may continue to offer to India and the world. It jeopardises Auroville’s future relevance for our country and the world. People cannot innovate when they live in fear of violence and deportation.

We recognise the key role that Auroville has played in the research and design of systems of food production, ecological restoration, natural healthcare, education, architecture, and watershed-sensitive town planning. It has been an inspiration for numerous ecological projects and practices across India and the world during the past 40 years. Two years ago, we, members of Vikalp Sangam, gathered in Auroville with leading pioneers in the sustainability movement to re-imagine pathways for economy and governance that fit today’s global challenges, such as rampant inequality and the ecological (including climate) crisis. We have since been continuing our collaboration in small ways and working towards deepening our relationship with the community in a spirit of mutual learning and offering.

We understand that the present situation is the precipitate of a long-term unresolved conflict within the community regarding the development of a major circular road around the centre of Auroville called the Crown Way. We learn that while the administration, supported by a group of residents in positions of power, have been imposing the implementation of a plan that has been found to result in serious social and ecological damage, the community has made alternative proposals accommodating the ground realities, with minor adjustments to the road. We also learn that these alternative proposals, backed by detailed studies and plans and led by well-accomplished and internationally renowned urban planners living in and associated with Auroville, have been repeatedly ignored.

It is apparent that for decades, Auroville’s residents and government representatives have operated in a delicate balance of power, enshrined in the Auroville Foundation Act 1988. It appears now that this balance is being destroyed, with top-down decisions emanating from the central government, decisions that are oriented towards fast-track urban construction at the cost of community participation, consensus and ecological integrity. At a time when the world is asking questions about the currently dominant ‘development’ mindset because of its unsustainability and inequity, we fear that such imposition will undermine the role of Auroville as a site for innovation towards collective creativity and harmony.

As a civil society, we are inspired by the unique experiment in Auroville towards self-organisation and localised governance; an aspiration that has been growing across India and the world. Many aspects of it still need to be worked out, but that is to be expected in a situation where residents converge from many nationalities and cultures and have to work out the intricacies of genuine democracy. Instead of using its inadequacies and challenges as the rationale for such a top-down imposition, we urge all concerned to help strengthen the Auroville Residents Assembly, enable its empowerment to function to its full potential and become a true instrument of the collective labour towards the creation of the ‘City of Dawn’ that it aspires to be.

We support the residents’ plea to drop plans and processes of the imposed land clearance, and to instead enable a process of true collaboration and co-creation for deciding on what is the best interest of people and the environment in Auroville. The Vikalp Sangam stands for a pluriverse of pathways towards well-being and development, and we need Auroville as an autonomous laboratory for evolving such pathways through collective living and work.

A section of Auroville residents are protesting against a road project, named Crown Project, saying it cuts through a forested area